Written by Ben Terrett, a designer in London.

The blueness of Heat

I reckon there are only four films I've seen more than once, properly, all the way through, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Lion King, Lord of the Rings and Heat. Breakfast at Tiffany's used to be my favourite film but now I think it's Heat.

One of the things I love about it is the attention to colour. Almost everything in the film is cold steely blue colour. Sure, it's easy enough alter the grading but they've also used blue lights, blue clothes, the sky and the sea. All to add to the subtle blue effect.

It was on telly last night so I tried to take some pictures to prove my point. You can't really see what I mean because the tungsten lighting of my lounge alters the colours. But there are some more pics on Flickr if you're interested.

Comments

Interestingly, I just watched The Matrix trilogy of films and found they were all very green in colour.

My favourite colour-related film is D.O.A. with Dennis Quaid, where he plays a doctor who's been lethally poisoned. And as he nears death the colour in the film drains to a point near the end where it's almost wholly black-and-white. Great stuff.

Great movie. Especially from a sound perspective. The gun fight with no backing track is incredibly powerful, it feels so real. It also goes against all the industry sound 'norms' for a Hollywood production. Also, Heat has my favourite continuity error in it. In the same music-less gun fight, a guy gets shot through the back of the head whilst sitting in a car. Moments later it happens to the poor guy again, but from a different angle.